


Hiraeth

by rainbow_shirbert



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Birthday, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Foster Kid Keith (Voltron), Found Family, Gen, M/M, allura's kinda mean, klance can be read as relationship or gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:07:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28058922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbow_shirbert/pseuds/rainbow_shirbert
Summary: Home wasn't a place for Keith, it was the people he loved. So when the people he loves keep leaving, does he even have a home?
Relationships: Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)





	Hiraeth

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I though of this idea completely out of the blue and just had to write to down. It was originally only gonna be like 500 words, but I got carried away, oops! Let me know what you though!

Hiraeth: homesickness for a home you can’t return to.

Home was never really a place for Keith. It was the people in his life. Well, at least the ones that stayed. 

For a while, Keith’s dad was ‘home’ for him. The kids at school didn’t really like him, but he was ok. When his dad died, any sense of home did as well. The shack was still there, but that meant nothing to Keith if his dad wasn’t there too. Keith hated when his new foster parents would say,”this is your new home.” because it just wasn’t true. It was his new house, sure, but home was a different story. He would never get to return to the home he once knew. 

When he met Shiro, Keith thought that maybe he would get another home. Shiro was there for him when he needed, and he made Keith feel like he was home again. Finally he could feel normal again. Finally he could have someone who’s there for him. Finally, he could be home. But after he left for the Kerberos mission, Keith once again felt like he was left without a home. 

While in space, the other paladins missed their homes on earth, but not Keith. His home wasn’t on earth, it was right here with him, because Shiro was there. 

Sadly, the universe just wouldn’t let Keith catch a break. After their battle with Zarkon, Shiro was nowhere to be found. Keith spent all the time that he could searching for him, just wanting to be home again. Although, it did make him rather crabby and short-fused. He was already having trouble forming bonds with the other paladins, and he was only making it worse. It’s like they were all a family, and he was just along for the ride. It almost felt like a new foster home. 

Today was an especially bad day. Coran made an earth calendar for the paladins, and sure enough, it was Shiro’s birthday. Well, sorta. It was March 1st, but it wasn’t a leap year. It was still enough to put Keith in an even worse mood. 

To make things even worse, Allura decided that it was a good day for team bonding. They weren’t even half way through and Keith had already gotten into several arguments with Allura, shoved Hunk, and shouted at Pidge. He didn’t need anyone to tell him he was being a crappy person, he knew it better than anyone. 

After picking another fight with Allura, she had enough of it. “KEITH!” she shouted, startling everyone. “Could you get over yourself for two seconds so we can complete this exercise!? Then, you can go back to moping around, and looking for Shiro, and getting on EVERYBODY’S nerves! But until then, please, stop causing problems and getting in the way!” 

Keith was trembling in both fear, and shame. “y-y-yes.” he was able to stutter.

Allura simply stared at him for a moment longer, before continuing with further instructions. All of the paladins looked shaken up from her outburst. Sure, they were all annoyed with Keith, but they all silently decided that it was one of those things they just wouldn’t bring up. He was definitely feeling bad enough already about Shiro, so they all just dealt with the stormcloud that followed him around. 

As Allura continued explaining, Keith was still trembling. His eyes stung as he tried to hold everything together. Lance noticed his shaky hands, and reached out to place a hand on his shoulder.

“Are you alright?” he whispered.

Keith looked at him and swallowed the lump in his throat.”yeah, I just-”

“KEITH!” Allura was shouting again. “What did I just tell you?!”

“I didn’t do anything!” his voice cracked, and everyone turned to look at him. Oh no, he wasn’t gonna last another minute without sobbing. Allura’s words from earlier had cut deep.

“Allura, maybe we should just leave this for tomorrow? Maybe it’d be better if-” said Lance. 

“Oh no!” she started. “I am not going to change what I had planned all because he.”she pointed at Keith. She seemed to not notice his current state,”doesn’t know how to treat people!” 

Keith’s eyes were squeezed shut. His shoulders hunched up towards his ears. 

“Allura, maybe Lance has a point.” Hunk said.

“Yeah, I agree.” Pidge continued. “I mean, if the purpose of the exercise is team bonding than-”

“Well then maybe we should be doing this everyday because Keith doesn’t seem to know how to be on a team!” and that was the straw that broke the camel's back. After a pause of silence and utter shock, a loud sob ripped from Keith’s throat. He buried his head in his arms and cried.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I..I..I just..sorry I…it’s his..and...” he tried to say as he cried. However, no one could understand what he was saying. 

They all stood there in complete shock as Keith broke down in front of them.

“Keith? Buddy? Can you look up?” Hunk said, but his words fell on deaf ears.

Lance shook his head.”Hey, C’mere.” he said as he grabbed Keith from under his arms, and brought him to his chest.

“I gotcha. It’s ok.” he rubbed his back.

Allura was having none of it.”This is completely ridiculous and unacceptable! I demand-”

Allura was cut off by Keith sobbing even harder.

Pidge addressed the princess.”Allura! I don’t think you're helping.”

“Well he should need-”

“Just stop! Please!” Keith begged as he sobbed.”I’m sorry, I’m sorry I’m sorry.” he shook his head that was still buried in Lance’s chest. 

“I’ll take him to my room.” Lance supported a great deal of Keith’s weight on the walk there. They sat down on Lances bed, and Keith continued to cry as Lance rubbed his back.

Once he more or less calmed down, Lance asked him,”What wrong? I know you miss Shiro a lot, we all do. I mean, you’re closer to him than the rest of us, but what happened today?”

Keith inhaled,”Today would’ve been his birthday.” he sniffled.

“Oh.” Lance didn’t know what to say. “Is that it?”

Keith shook his head,”I just haven’t been home in so long.” he began to cry again, but not as much as before. 

Lance moved his hand to brush tears off of the boy’s cheeks. “Yeah, none of us have. We’ll go home one day though, I promise.”

Keith shook his head again,”No I don’t mean home, I mean home.”

“I’m confused.”

Keith took another deep breath.”Well yeah, I know that earth is ‘home’,but like...it doesn’t always feel like that for me. Home has always been the people I…..love, you know? And it’s like I can never go back. I can’t see my dad ever again. I might not be able to see Shiro ever again. It’s like I’ll never be home.” he was crying in full force now.

“Oh.” Lance repeated. He tried to wrap his head around what Keith was saying.”Well, we’re gonna do everything we can to find Shiro, and even if we can’t...I’m sure you’ll find a new home. I mean, we all care about you, Keith.”

Keith sniffled, and furrowed his brow. “Well apparently, I just ‘get on everybody’s nerves’ and ‘don’t know how to treat people.’ I know I make you guys frustrated. I’m not dumb.” 

Lance looked guilty even though he hadn’t done anything wrong.”Look, Allura shouldn’t have said those things-”

“But they’re true.”

“They’re not true. Yeah, we get a little upset when you get mad at us, or yell, but that doesn’t mean we don’t care about you. I definitely do.”

Keith paused,”You do?”

Lance smiled.”Of course I do.”

Keith took a second to respond, taking it all in.”Thanks Lance. That means a lot.”

Lance ruffled Keith’s hair.”Well it’s true. Now I’m gonna go grab you some medicine to take care of the headache you probably already have. Am I correct”

Keith nodded.”Yeah, you are actually. Thanks.” 

Lance smiled again.”I’ll be right back.” and he left.

Keith laid down on Lance’s bed and smiled. He didn’t have his dad, and he didn’t have Shiro, but Lance sure felt like home.


End file.
